Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Abstract

This lunette, depicting Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, is composed of several interlocking pieces of terracotta. Most of the surface is covered with colourful glazes, although areas of exposed flesh and Christ's halo are left unglazed. This practice of partial glazing became popular in the workshop of Andrea della Robbia starting in the 1490s, and it was taken up to great effect in the following decades by Benedetto Buglioni and his follower, Santi. Benedetto's glazes are usually more watery and muted, and less brilliant in appearance, than those of the contemporary Della Robbia workshop, and he occasionally experienced technical problems, such as the crawling seen here, particularly on the surface of the well. For these and other stylistic reasons, this lunette has been attributed to Benedetto Buglioni and dated to c. 1510-20. This sculpture is now exhibited in the Museo di Palazzo Taglieschi, Anghiari, though it was originally found in the Convento di Sant'Onofrio di Fuligno (also known as the Conservatorio della Concezione di Fuligno), in via Faenza, Florence. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.